Shut In: This film took a tremendous nose dive about halfway through.

'Shut In' (2016) is a film I had never heard of before I saw it crop up on Amazon. It seemed to fit the theme of my reviews and it had a good cast so I sat myself down to give it a go. And after seeing it I can confirm that it is probably a film that I will never think of again. It is a cliched and boring thriller which brings almost nothing interesting to the table, despite it's attempts to. The film follows Mary (Naomi Watts), a child psychologist who lives in the middle of nowhere with her teenage son, Stephen (Charlie Heaton), and husband, Richard (Peter Outerbridge). Her husband and son are involved in a car crash which kills Richard and leaves Stephen paralyzed. This has a huge mental toll on Mary as she becomes a full time carer for Stephen, while remaining working as a child psychologist. When one of her patients, Tom (Jacob Tremblay), breaks into her car, only to then go missing, Mary's mental health deteriorates further and she starts experiencing unexplainable events. She is convinced that these events are real, but her doctor, Dr. Wilson (Oliver Platt), tries to reassure her that these are just figments of her imagination. Is this all an effect of Mary's deteriorating mental health or is there something more sinister happening?

The concept of this film is an interesting one. I like films which are a bit ambiguous, where you are not sure whether what you are seeing is real or happening in the characters mind. Unfortunately, this film does not take full advantage of this. Although it keep thing ambiguous it does it in the most bland and cliched way possible which leaves you as an audience member rolling your eyes rather than being enthralled with what is real and what isn't. This is a problem with the film as the whole. It is just so bloody bland. Visually and technically there is nothing here. It is all just standard filmmaking which gives nothing new or exciting visually. The lighting and color grading is also really bland, using the standard lighting style of horror of deep blues and shadows and blah and blah and blah. Boring. This film is boring. The one interesting thing the film had going for it was its ambiguity, and it ruins that just after the halfway mark by throwing it all out the window. Instead, it replaces it with the most ridiculous narrative twists I have ever seen. It is not shocking , it's just stupid. The film also suffers from using a narrative device that I can't stand. There are a couple of scenes where something genuinely horrific is happening and then BOOM! It was just a dream. Fuck you. I hate that shit. Just have some balls and follow through on these ideas. Don't try to have your cake and eat it to. The final act also basically rehases the finale of 'The Shining' (1980) as well which makes it even more bland. We have seen all this before done infinitely better. Did I mention how bland and boring this film is?

There are some positives to this film though, it has some good performances. Oliver Platt is good as Dr. Wilson, having an air of empathy while maintaining a professionalism, while also able to turning on the fear factor when he is asked to. Jacob Tremblay, although he has very little to do in the film, is also good in his role. His character doesn't speak in the film and so most of his performance is done through his facial expression and he does well. Charlie Heaton is a little hit and miss. He is decent throughout the film, but he also hams it up quite a lot and becomes a little silly at points. The star of the show is Naomi Watts. I feel for her really because she is clearly trying her best to make this film work but she is powerless to resist the sheer blandness that the film creates. She has several truly emotional moments that she performs really well and she does well in showing the deterioration of her mental state. Unfortunately, she is hampered by a poor script and bland filmmaking, but she is a shining light in the dark.

'Shut In' is a film that I will almost immediately forget as soon as a press publish on this review. There is absolutely nothing here that is worthy of your time. It is a film with nothing new to bring, everything in ti has been done in other films to much better effect. It has some good performances but they are hampered by the surrounding mediocrity that the film provides. Out of all the films I have watched so far on this lockdown journey this is the one I would recommend the least. There have been films that have been worse. There have been films I have liked less. But this is the most forgettable one out of the bunch, and is also easily the biggest waste of time. You might as well just sit and stare at a wall for an hour and a half.